The old saying of a picture tells a thousand words rang true when I walked into the washrooms at the golf clubhouse.
It’s been fun this summer to pick up golf clubs again after a decade of not playing. Part of the reason was a reward to me and the other was finding a social and networking outlet that could still be done safely.
A bonus was I found visual content to share with you!
The social distancing sign made me smile as they had related an important health message with a visual representation that was easily relatable for a golfer – keep a flagstick length away from other people, which is about 2 metres.
The visual was also clever by taking into account the fact that going to the washroom is a multiple times a day occurrence for most of us. It becomes automatic. You need to be able to interrupt that auto action with something quick and visual that makes you stop and think, even if only for a second.
It reminded me of the sign you would see on the wall of men’s urinals – “We aim to please, will you please aim too” – it made you focus…literally!
Where are the opportunities for you to communicate your messages visually and achieve that pattern interrupt?
Some of the social networks, like Instagram are obviously very visually focused, but others like LinkedIn posts can often work better with no visuals. Having said that of course, if you can come up with something clever, like Clublink did with the washroom sign, then a good visual could really stand out.
Visual messaging approaches to consider;
- Video – you are probably tired of hearing everyone tell you that you need to be doing video. But its reality. We are consuming more and more video and many are too ‘lazy’ to read! Think about adding value.
- Photos – like I did with the golf sign, there are many times you will see something visually interesting that you can use. Take a photo. You own it and will never run into creative licence issues.
- Infographics – often you have steps in a process that you need to explain. A well designed infographic can work much better than long paragraphs of text instructions.
- Other visual content can be graphs, slide decks, memes. gifs, and more
The key is choosing the visual content that is on brand for you AND will engage your target audience.
What visual messages do you use or are going to try? I would love to hear.